US State Dept condemns Iranian strikes on Iraq, Syria and Pakistan
The Spokesperson for the US Department of State, Matthew Miller. Photo: AP/Yonhap
Washington – The United States on Wednesday condemned recent Iranian strikes in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan, which Tehran has claimed were carried out against “anti-Iranian terrorist groups.”
“So we do condemn those strikes. We’ve seen Iran violate the sovereign borders of three of its neighbors in just the past couple of days,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Iran on Wednesday and blocked Tehran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad after the air strike, which it said killed two children in the west of the country.
The raid occurred late Tuesday after similar attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch called the attack near the countries’ shared border “unprovoked” and a breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Iranian news agency Mehr News said the “missile and drone” attack targeted the Pakistan headquarters of Jaish al-Adl, a group formed in 2012 and blacklisted by Iran as a terrorist group.
Jaish al-Adl has carried out several attacks on Iranian soil in recent years.
Iran said the other missile attacks targeted “spy headquarters” and “terrorist” targets in Syria, and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
The strikes come as the Middle East has been rocked by the Israel-Gaza crisis, and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea.
In Washington, Miller said: “I think it is a little rich for, on one hand, Iran to be the leading funder of terrorism in the region, the leading funder of instability in the region, and on the other hand, claimed that it needs to take these actions to counter terrorism.”